Roof line detail and right side of my HO scale GP10 project. Most of the small detail parts have been added. Wiring is complete. The engine is pretty much ready for decals.

In the introductory post on my GP10 project, I noted that I’d like this project done by October 31. I didn’t mention what year. It is well past the date which I originally targeted for completion of this project. However, those of you that know me know the two little reasons (Twin A and Twin B) for my lack of progress. The twins are fine and their brother, 2 1/2, is doing fine. Our life is getting back to the ‘new’ normal.

Any case, I took these pictures on October 6, 2013 and have made progress since then, but I wanted to let you know what has happened with this project leading up to October 6th.

I finished installing most of the detail parts that don’t interfere with masking. Parts I left off for the time being are the lower grab irons and three pane all-weather window. Another big task was to install the DCC decoder. I did a hardwired installation, as this Atlas unit predates DCC ready standards by many years. I chose a DH163 for its ability to produce rear and forward lights on F0 and a (simulated) rotary beacon on the cab top. Street price for a Dh163 is about $30.00.

The rotary beacon is functional. It is lit by the green wire from the Digitrax DH163 installed under the long hood.

The hardwired installation isn’t at all hard. Just time consuming. I removed the factory “board”. I wired the red wire to the right pickup, black to the left. An orange and gray wire each to the motor. I used the white and yellow wires for forward and reverse headlights and the green wire to power the fink light. I used the blue wire as common for all the wires. I used Miniatronics 1.5v, 30mA bulbs in all applications here, mainly for their physical dimensions. I’m always biased toward using LEDs, but in this case, it made sense to use these incandescent bulbs. The main issue was making sure all those bulbs would be easy to put back into place after painting.

Then it was off to the paint shop, where I shot a coat of BN green (Polly-S) on the body and frame. I masked using 3M blue painter’s tape and then painted Polly-S engine black on the rest of the model.

A bunch of post-paint work was needed to get the cab to fit down over the main shell and frame correctly. Remember that this model has been modified, so things didn’t quite fit as expected. After several permutations of assembly and disassembly and minimal cursing, I got the engine to fit together presentably and functionally.